


The Other Half

by AllenbysEyes



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Hurt and comfort, Mega Pearl, No Dialogue, Post-Fusion, Post-Volleyball, Stream of Consciousness, Volleypearl - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21733624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllenbysEyes/pseuds/AllenbysEyes
Summary: Pearl reflects on Pink Diamond, Pink Pearl, Mega Pearl, and herself. Short one-shot set immediately after Volleyball.
Relationships: Pearl/Pink Diamond's Original Pearl, Pearl/Pink Diamond's Pearl, Pearl/Volleyball, Volleypearl
Comments: 23
Kudos: 174





	The Other Half

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! I just wanted to write a quick story to try and shake off some rust; it's been ages since I've written any fanfic, but fortunately the first round of Steven Universe Future provided some inspiration. Pink Pearl/Volleyball is so adorable, and I wish her and Pearl the best!

It's hard to describe how it feels after a fusion breaks up.

You remember what happened, but only in the dim, vague sense that humans would remember a dream. It doesn't feel real - the details are smudged, with startling bursts of vividness coursing through the memory, but without much rhyme or reason to what you remember. Mostly because it was hard to tell which thoughts, or memories, were yours, or hers - or the Fusion's. 

What was mostly left was a feeling, an emotion - whether it was a good fusion, or a bad one, or how you felt, or what you learned about about your partner. 

All Pearl knew is that, after unfusing from Mega Pearl, she was happier than she'd been in a long, long time. 

She sat on the beach with Pink Pearl (she didn't want to call her "Volleyball," no matter what Steven said), her head leaning against Pearl's. It was dark, the Moon was almost full, and the light glistened in her gossamer pink hair. She'd slipped a comforting arm around Pink's shoulders, but didn't know quite how to react. 

So she just stared, trying to peace her thoughts together. Trying to reconcile Pearl's thoughts with Mega Pearl's thoughts - and with the new Gem sitting beside her.

What did she feel about this Gem, this new intrusion into her life?

Every time she thought she'd moved on, or at least made peace with Rose...with Pink Diamond...something new came in to remind her. Perhaps it was Spinel, enacting a vendetta no one remembered. Perhaps it was Steven finding a new power or making a fresh discovery - he had a knack for uncovering things about his mom that even Pearl hadn't known.

Perhaps, now, it was another Pearl, who had suffered as much as her - maybe even more - who showed that Pink's dark side was much more tangible than just mistakes or collateral damage or millennia-long identity crises.

And yet. She couldn't be mad. Because Pink Pearl was, well, another victim. Another Pearl, like her.

Not _quite_ like her, of course. All Pearls had different personalities. And there was something refreshingly forward and sweet about this one. She had the voice of a friendly teenager, someone who just liked people and getting to know everyone - a voice Pearl herself hadn't ever possessed, even in her innocent younger days.

She seemed so easygoing, so approachable, in a way that Pearls rarely were. Her smile was sweet and genuine, with nothing of the forced, robotic jollity Pearl remembered from millennia ago (or after her recent reset). Nor did she have the snappy brittleness of Yellow, or Blue Pearl's demure personality, or Pearl's own physical strength and fussiness.

She was a Friend, made to order. Not a servant. 

She imagined that came from Pink. Because Pink never understood, never accepted how things were supposed to be. And in some ways, that was beautiful.

But in others... 

Even with the scar, Pearl thought, she was beautiful. Amazingly so.

Her skin was paler than any Pearl she'd ever seen, practically clear in the moonlight. Her hair, her content, happy little smile, and the light in her remaining eyes. Her thin body and delicate hands. Her dancer's legs entwined round each other like vines. 

And more than anything, she felt so right. 

She hadn't been thrilled, exactly, to see Pink Pearl at first. She seemed like a rival, a memory from the past. Another reminder of Rose, of Pink. And she was, of course. But after fusing, after that amazing moment of terror and excitement, the escape from the Reef...she felt differently. 

Here was somebody who understood. 

Here was somebody was both the same, yet marvelously, amazingly, refreshingly **different** from her. 

Here was somebody who could help make sense of everything she - they - everyone had been through. What it meant to be Pink Diamond's servant, and friend, and lover. 

What it meant to be a Pearl. 

In her own quiet, friendly way, she was a testament to Rose Quartz. Both the ugly side, the side that caused Rose to lash out and smash her best friend's face, rendering her "defective" in the eyes of Homeworld...but also the good side, the side that made her completely different from every other Pearl on Homeworld. Everyone else she'd ever known.

And that felt comforting. Because she wanted to know this Pearl better, in every way that mattered. 

And she knew, from the memories of Mega Pearl, from what the fusion had said before dissolving, from the gentle way they held hands and leaned their heads together, that Pink felt the same as her. 

She wanted this Pearl to be hers.

Well, not in that way.

She wanted this Pearl to be _with her_. 

Who knows how the Universe works? She hadn't given this Pearl a second thought in the two years since the fight with White Diamond. She remembered Blue and Yellow, and while no longer close to them was happy to see them exploring their own personalities under the aegis of Era Three, becoming happier and more individual and more free than they could have ever dreamed. 

But Pink Pearl? White Pearl? She still remembered how she acted when she was merely a familiar for the worst Diamond of all. And it was a hard memory to forget. 

Except, now, none of that seemed to matter. Because she knew her as Pink Pearl, as Volleyball. As half of Mega Pearl.

As half of _her_.

As the half that had always been missing.

Pearl pulled her new friend closer and laid a gentle kiss on her forehead. Pink made a soft cooing noise, and closed her eye.

And Pearl smiled. 

The Moon was beautiful, and so was life.

**Author's Note:**

> Now available in a Russian translation by Goldy-Gry! https://ficbook.net/readfic/8863198


End file.
